Dylan Cease deserves more love from AL Cy Young

The favorites to win the AL Cy Young are obvious, but Dylan Cease was so dominant that the White Sox ace can only be overlooked for so long.

Entering Saturday, Houston Astros veteran Justin Verlander has turned back the clock so extraordinarily that he is the clear favorite to win the season-ending AL Cy Young Award. Not too far behind him, however, is a fresh face in the running, Tampa Bay Ray’s young ace Shane McClanahan.

Consensus odds see Verlander as the -125 favorite, while McClanahan sits at +250 to take home the honor. Then there’s one more drop before you get to it Chicago White Sox Stud Dylan Stop at +400 before a massive drop off with the next candidate at +2000.

But even as the only other pitcher in the stratosphere from Verlander and McClanahan, Cease deserves more attention than he gets as an AL Cy Young candidate this season.

Dylan Cease was dominant enough for the White Sox to warrant more serious consideration from Cy Young

On Friday night, Cease led the White Sox to another win as he lasted six innings while giving up just two hits, three walks, one earned run and batting five batters (an unusually low total for him this season) to move to 12 get. 4 in the season.

With that outing, however, the mustachioed slinger became the first starting pitcher, not including openers, as earned runs became a statistic in 1913 to allow for 1 or fewer earned runs in 13 consecutive starts.

That’s a top performance from the 26-year-old right-hander and he can back it up more than that. For the season, he ranks first among qualifiers in baseball Strikeouts per 9 innings at 12.2, ranks third among baseball’s starting pitchers with a 1.98 ERA and only has a 1.16 WHIP a year. And again he didn’t allow more than one deserved run in 13 starts.

Nothing to point to could adequately disparage Verlander and McClanahan this season – both pitchers have been incredible this season. But the performance Cease has delivered for the White Sox is equally undeniable. He’s among Cy Young’s top 3 favorites but deserves to be firmer in this conversation given his dominance.